Dunnage is widely used in many industries and in many applications. In many instances, dunnage is used to provide gaps or spaces in groups of stacked items. More specifically, dunnage is often used to provide a space or gap in order to allow the tines of a forklift or other material handing device to move a group of items that make up a stack. For example, consider a stacked group of items that is to be carried by a forklift and then set on a floor. It is often desirable to position several pieces of dunnage on the floor, and then to set the items on the dunnage. In this way, the dunnage provides a space or gap between the floor and the items so that the tines of the forklift can be easily removed from beneath the items after they are set in place on the dunnage. Similarly, the gap or space between the floor and the items allows the items to be more easily picked up with the forklift.
Dunnage is often employed in this manner in the lumber industry. For example, in many modern sawmills, and other types of lumber production and/or processing facilities, high-speed automatic lumber stackers or stack formers are used. These automatic stackers collect lumber pieces or boards from a production line and position or arrange the collected pieces into organized stack units. Often, the stacker is setup to form stack units of a given size and/or weight. The given stack unit size or weight can be determined according to one or more various factors. These factors can include, for example, the handling capacity of equipment that may be used to move or transport the stack units, and/or the handling capacity of equipment that may be used for additional processing of the stack units. For example, a common practice in the lumber industry is to employ a forklift to pick up the stack units as they emerge from the automatic stacker. Thus, the stack units must be of a size and/or weight that does not exceed the capacity of the forklift.
Typically, as stack units emerge from an automatic stacker, they are picked up by a forklift and then arranged one-on-top-of-another to facilitate efficient use of storage space or processing space. Dunnage pieces are often placed onto stack units as they emerge from the automatic stacker. More specifically, dunnage pieces are placed onto the stack units upon which other stack units will be placed. In many instances, a stockpile of dunnage is maintained near the output location of the automatic stacker. At the time a given stack unit is picked up by a forklift from the automatic stacker, the forklift driver will know whether dunnage is required to be placed on the given stack unit. If dunnage is required, it can be manually picked from the dunnage stockpile, and then placed onto the top of the stack unit that is to be picked up. Often, this manual picking and placement of the dunnage is done by the forklift driver. After the dunnage is placed on top of the stack unit, the forklift carries the stack unit to its destination with the dunnage in place on the top of the stack unit.
The identification of problems, deficiencies, potential or actual benefits or advantages described above is not admitted to be prior art.